Bruce T. Blythe, CEO, Crisis Management International,
Inc. contributed the following about Strategic Crisis
Leadership:
You are a leader of a small, mid-market
company or a large enterprise: What would you do in the three
situations briefly outlined below?
Crisis Leadership Moment #1 Imagine that
it finally hit! The avian flu has just been confirmed to be
contagious. One of your traveling employees has just been diagnosed
with this dreaded disease after returning home. Your workforce is
fearful that they might have been exposed and most are not
personally prepared at home for an outbreak. But, you need
them to carry out the company's business continuity plan. Employees
in mass want to take time off. What do you do?
Crisis Leadership Moment
#2 You learn that one of your facilities has been
emitting low-level toxic substances for an undetermined amount of
time. It is the company's fault due to a prior decision to delay
replacement of a faulty system in one of your facilities. But, it
is quickly remedied. Possibly, employees, visitors and others
have been exposed to a small degree. Most likely, the exposure was
minimal with no harm. Unfortunately, a similar situation
occurred at the same facility last year. You reported it to the
authorities and the media, in learning about it, exaggerated the
story, blaming the company for putting people at risk. If
knowledge of the present toxic emission were unveiled publicly it
would likely cause serious reputation and legal damage to your
organization, now that it has happened again. But it would be worse
if discovered later that you tried to cover it up. Possibly, your
position within the company is on the line, as well. Only you and a
couple of trusted subordinates know about the emission now. Do you
proactively go public and risk the feared personal, reputation and
legal damage or try to resolve the situation quietly with
(hopefully) no public harm done? Two bombs hit your
facilities simultaneously in different locations with a note from
an activist group taking credit. Do you close all your facilities
throughout the enterprise as a safety precaution? If so, for how
long? If not, what are alternative responses?
Crisis Leadership Moment
#3 Two bombs hit your facilities simultaneously in
different locations with a note from an activist group taking
credit. Do you close all your facilities throughout the enterprise
as a safety precaution? If so, for how long? If not, what are
alternative responses?
Time's up. Tell me. What are
you going to do?
Experience and empirical research all
seem to agree that it is best to prepare. Crisis planning,
training, tabletop exercises and simulations-they all play an
important part in helping you as facilities managers prepare for an
unexpected crisis. But, then it hits for real and all bets are
off. With no prior notice, you must make on-the-spot crisis
leadership decisions and implement rapid-fire responses. Your
people are stressed-out and deadlines are time compressed.
Information is inadequate and the high-consequences of your
responses could determine if people will be harmed, careers ruined
and your company seriously damaged. Quick! What's the first
thing you'd do if someone slammed his car through the front
plate glass doors of one of your facilities? What if it
happened during work hours and people were killed? Have you
made some decisions? Great, now unmake them. Because you
just found out that he was a disgruntled employee. That changes
things. What do you do now? Have you decided? Good. Now
undecide. Because you just watched a local TV anchor report
that your company knew the employee was an alcoholic and he
had been making threats. Most crisis preparedness addresses
tactical and logistical issues, e.g., notifications, evacuations,
emergency response, etc.
Unfortunately, there is very little
preparedness for managers who must make high-quality, defining
decisions in the midst of chaos. Yet, leaders at all levels of an
organization in crisis must make best-judgment crisis response
decisions in ambiguous, high-consequence situations.
Purposeful crisis leadership preparedness is a vital missing
ingredient in most corporations. Commonly, the belief is that
managers like you, "are intelligent, experienced leaders and they
are paid to make tough decisions during crises." This attitude is
analogous to a professional sports team that believes they have
such highly talented athletes there is no need to develop a
playbook and use any plays during the game.
No learned crisis
leadership skill will overcome the lack of character, ethics or
integrity.
What do you need to be? Caring.
Demonstration of caring is more important that all other leadership
traits combined, according to research by the Center for Risk
Communications. If you come across as uncaring, people will become
outraged. Caring during crisis response is not a feeling. Caring is
a set of corporate and personal behaviors that elicit the
perception in impacted stakeholders that you and your company truly
care. What do you need to know? As a leader, you must have a
vision for crisis resolution. Without a clear and compelling vision
for response and recovery, you will not be able to adequately lead
your people during times of crisis. And do? The single most
important action is two-way communication. Simply put, you will
never be any better at responding to crises than your
communication. That involves how well you listen to obtain
the facts and how well you speak openly to impacted
stakeholders. This is one prescription that we impart in
leaders who take the time to purposefully prepare for their
responsibilities as Strategic Crisis Leaders. It can work for you,
too.